1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to measurement of hydrogen gas in a liquid. It particularly relates to the measurement of hydrogen gas in oil.
2. Description of Prior Art
The measurement of hydrogen gas in the oil of an electrical transformer is of interest as it is an indication of the breakdown of the oil caused by overheating and/or arcing inside the transformer. Transformer oil cools the transformer and acts as a dielectric. As transformer oil ages it becomes a less effective dielectric. The increase in hydrogen dissolved in the transformer oil is an indicator of the coming failure of the transformer.
There is also need for determining hydrogen concentration in the oil of long-running engines such as those utilized in electric generation and powering ships. The monitoring of hydrogen level in cooking oils also would be useful to determine when to change the oil. The monitoring of hydrogen content of oil in hydrogen powered engines is also of interest.
For large transformers there are hydrogen sensors that use gas chromatography or photo-acoustic spectroscopy to determine the amount of hydrogen gas within a transformer's oil. Such devices are very expensive and the expense is not justified for smaller transformers. There are many older, small transformers that could be monitored if a low-cost method of doing so was available.
A lower-cost gas monitor, the Hydran™ M2 manufactured by General Electric Company has been in use. However, this gas monitor only senses combustible gases and then uses a formula to estimate how much of the gas typically is hydrogen and how much is other gases.
An article “Overview of Online Oil Monitoring Technologies” by Tim Cargol at the Fourth Annual Weidmann—ACTI Technical Conference, San Antonio 2005 provides a discussion of oil gas measuring techniques, including hydrogen measurement.
Palladium hydrogen sensors are disclosed in Gases and Technology, July/August 2006, in the article, “Palladium Nanoparticle Hydrogen Sensor” pages 18-21. Palladium sensors are also disclosed in US patent publications US 2007/0125153-Visel et al., US 2007/0068493-Pavlovsky, US 2004/0261500-Ng et al.
There's a need for low-cost method of determining hydrogen gas content in oils, such as in transformers and long-running engines, and other liquids such as organic cooling liquids, such as glycols, and also for cutting coolant liquids used in cooling of metal cutting devices.